Midway announces Crank the Weasel

It was shown briefly behind closed doors at E3 2002, but at Midway's recent Las Vegas press event, the company took the lid off of its upcoming platform game, Crank the Weasel.

Crank the Weasel is a platform game with an art design that recalls the classic 1940s cartoons of Tex Avery. In the game, players assume the role of Crank, a thief who must amass a fortune in order to escape the slums via zeppelin to Paradise Island. Getting this money together means collecting coins and other valuables, such as refrigerators. Big-ticket items like the fridge must be pawned, so Crank will have to steal them and slip away to the pawnshop to cash in. Vending machines will also come into play. The one we saw let Crank purchase a disguise so that he could pass freely through hostile territory to get a fridge and escape.

From the looks of Midway's demo--which seemed to center on Crank smacking a woman in the rump over and over again--Crank could become an attitude-driven platformer in the same vein as Conker's Bad Fur Day. Crank the Weasel is scheduled for a 2003 release.